Backpacking Greener

[maverick]

With the advent of all green, everything green, what changes have you made in
your backpacking habits to become a more green/ecco sensitive backpacker?
Have any of you purchased any clothing/shoes/equipment that are considered
green or partially green? Changed to green TP? Cut out or back on making camp
fires? How have these greener products performed compared to the non green
versions?

[rlown]

not sure how to answer that. everything we carry is of some weird poly based form.. heck, even the food sometimes. We still have to drive to the trailhead.

What are you looking for?

[gdurkee]

With the advent of nylon & pile years ago, I always thought of backpacking as "Exon goes to the mountains." The bad news is petroleum based equipment and modern tech makes hiking both lighter and safer. Few things less fun than wet wool, both for weight and chafing your legs as you ski... .

g.

[maverick]

Rlown wrote:
What are you looking for?

Things like these Russ:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/footprint" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.rei.com/category/1/q/Eco-Con ... d+Clothing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.greenoutdoor.co.uk/products" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.backpacker.com/greening-gear ... gear/15220" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Wandering Daisy]

The least "green" thing I do is drive solo to the trailhead. And when I drive 800 miles, by myself, to backpack in the Wind Rivers, I am really un-green! And I drive a fairly large car (Toyota Camry) - not my choice of car but was given to me free by my mother-in-law when she quit driving.

I use my stuff until it wears out so I guess that is "green" - more done because I am too cheap to throw out servicable gear just because it is not the latest and lightest currently made. I try to be a LNT camper and am very picky about keeping streams and lakes clean.

PETA would not like me, I kill and eat fish as well as warm blooded animals like Bambi. A faction of the "green" movement is anti-hunting.

[balzaccom]

OK...well, we drive a Ford hybrid SUV to the trailhead. That's about it. Our clothes and pack are not biodegradable...althought we do try to practice LNT...

[rlown]

It's a noble cause to go green-er. It still comes back to what works and feels good for the individual. Just because REI might tag something as eco-friendly doesn't make me buy it over something else that feels or fits or works better. As many have said, most here have gear since we started our outings decades ago. That's about as green as you can be.

And LNT is a given.

[gary c.]

The closest I've come is my Patagonia down sweater and a pair of my convertable pants that are made with recycled materiels. I bought them because I liked the cloths and not because of any green factor. Actually I almost didn't buy them because they had the warning like all cloths manufactured from plastic bottles not to wash with a fabric softener. It made me worry that they might fall apart.

[Carne_DelMuerto]

Does dismantling fire rings count?

The good friend who introduced me to backpacking (and used to work in SEKI) always insisted we dismantle grandiose or extra fire rings wherever we camped. I could always count on having to haul a bunch of soot covered rocks off into the woods when we were backpacking together. On an over nighter (without said friend) last fall, I ended up at a spot with two fire rings five feet from each other. "Crap," I thought, "Nate's not here, but I'm still going to have tear one of these apart."

Otherwise, I practice LNT as best I can.

[LMBSGV]

I’ve long thought that one of the biggest ironies about wilderness backpacking is I’m less “green” than in my normal, daily life. Besides the drive to the trailhead already mentioned, there’s the fact everything is packed in a zip-lock plastic bag. Before the trip, I repackage all the food from it’s original containers into zip-lock bags. Also, a lot of the non-food items from suntan lotion to matches (it only takes one instance of suntan lotion leaking all over to put it in a plastic bag). Then there’s George Dukee’s incite that it’s “Exxon goes to the mountains.”

So in order to be in the simplicity of the wilderness, we employ modern technology that most of the time is definitely not “green.”